Across the valley of the Oreto from Monreale, on the slopes of the
mountains just above the little village of Parco, lies the old convent
of Sta. Catarina. From the cloister terrace at Monreale you can see its
pale walls and the slim campanile of its chapel rising from the crowded
citron and mulberry orchards that flourish, rank and wild, no longer
cared for by pious and loving hands. From the rough road that climbs
the mountains to Assunto, the convent is invisible, a gnarled and
ragged olive grove intervening, and a spur of cliffs as well, while
from Palermo one sees only the speck of white, flashing in the sun,
indistinguishable from the many similar gleams of desert monastery or
pauper village.

Partly because of this seclusion, partly by reason of its extreme
beauty, partly, it may be, because the present owners are more than
charming and gracious in their pressing hospitality, Sta. Catarina
seems to preserve an element of the poetic, almost magical; and as I
drove with the Cavaliere Valguanera one evening in March out of
Palermo, along the garden valley of the Oreto, then up the mountain
side where the warm light of the spring sunset swept across from
Monreale, lying golden and mellow on the luxuriant growth of figs, and
olives, and orange-trees, and fantastic cacti, and so up to where the
path of the convent swung off to the right round a dizzy point of cliff
that reached out gaunt and gray from the olives below,as I drove thus
in the balmy air, and saw of a sudden a vision of creamy walls and
orange roof, draped in fantastic festoons of roses, with a single
curving palm-tree stuck black and feathery against the gold sunset, it
is hardly to be wondered at that I should slip into a mood of visionary
enjoyment, looking for a time on the whole thing as the misty phantasm
of a summer dream.

The Cavaliere had introduced himself to us,Tom Rendel and me,one
morning soon after we reached Palermo, when, in the first bewilderment
of architects in this paradise of art and colour, we were working nobly
at our sketches in that dream of delight, the Capella Palatina. He was
himself an amateur archæologist, he told us, and passionately devoted
to his island; so he felt impelled to speak to anyone whom he saw
appreciating the almostand in a way fortunatelyunknown beauties of
Palermo. In a little time we were fully acquainted, and talking like
the oldest friends. Of course he knew acquaintances of
Rendel's,someone always does: this time they were officers on the
tubby U. S. S. Quinebaug, that, during the summer of 1888, was
trying to uphold the maritime honour of the United States in European
waters. Luckily for us, one of the officers was a kind of cousin of
Rendel's, and came from Baltimore as well, so, as he had visited at the
Cavaliere's place, we were soon invited to do the same. It was in this
way that, with the luck that attends Rendel wherever he goes, we came
to see something of domestic life in Italy, and that I found myself
involved in another of those adventures for which I naturally sought so
little.

I wonder if there is any other place in Sicily so faultless as Sta.
Catarina? Taormina is a paradise, an epitome of all that is beautiful
in Italy,Venice excepted. Girgenti is a solemn epic, with its golden
temples between the sea and hills. Cefalú is wild and strange, and
Monreale a vision out of a fairy tale; but Sta. Catarina!

Fancy a convent of creamy stone and rose red brick perched on a
ledge of rock midway between earth and heaven, the cliff falling almost
sheer to the valley two hundred feet and more, the mountain rising
behind straight toward the sky; all the rocks covered with cactus and
dwarf fig-trees, the convent draped in smothering roses, and in front a
terrace with a fountain in the midst; and thennothingbetween you
and the sapphire sea, six miles away. Below stretches the Eden valley,
the Concha d'Oro, gold-green fig orchards alternating with smoke-blue
olives, the mountains rising on either hand and sinking undulously away
toward the bay where, like a magic city of ivory and nacre, Palermo
lies guarded by the twin mountains, Monte Pelligrino and Capo
Zafferano, arid rocks like dull amethysts, rose in sunlight, violet in
shadow: lions couchant, guarding the sleeping town.

Seen as we saw it for the first time that hot evening in March, with
the golden lambent light pouring down through the valley, making it in
verity a shell of gold, sitting in Indian chairs on the terrace, with
the perfume of roses and jasmines all around us, the valley of the
Oreto, Palermo, Sta. Catarina, Monreale,all were but parts of a
dreamy vision, like the heavenly city of Sir Percivale, to attain which
he passed across the golden bridge that burned after him as he vanished
in the intolerable light of the Beatific Vision.

It was all so unreal, so phantasmal, that I was not surprised in the
least when, late in the evening after the ladies had gone to their
rooms, and the Cavaliere, Tom, and I were stretched out in chairs on
the terrace, smoking lazily under the multitudinous stars, the
Cavaliere said, There is something I really must tell you both before
you go to bed, so that you may be spared any unnecessary alarm.

You are going to say that the place is haunted, said Rendel,
feeling vaguely on the floor beside him for his glass of Amaro: thank
you; it is all it needs.

The Cavaliere smiled a little: Yes, that is just it. Sta. Catarina
is really haunted; and much as my reason revolts against the idea as
superstitious and savouring of priestcraft, yet I must acknowledge I
see no way of avoiding the admission. I do not presume to offer any
explanations, I only state the fact; and the fact is that to-night one
or other of you will, in all humanor unhumanprobability, receive a
visit from Sister Maddelena. You need not be in the least afraid, the
apparition is perfectly gentle and harmless; and, moreover, having seen
it once, you will never see it again. No one sees the ghost, or
whatever it is, but once, and that usually the first night he spends in
the house. I myself saw the thing eightnine years ago, when I first
bought the place from the Marchese di Muxaro; all my people have seen
it, nearly all my guests, so I think you may as well be prepared.

Then tell us what to expect, I said; what kind of a ghost is this
nocturnal visitor?

It is simple enough. Some time to-night you will suddenly awake and
see before you a Carmelite nun who will look fixedly at you, say
distinctly and very sadly, 'I cannot sleep,' and then vanish. That is
all, it is hardly worth speaking of, only some people are terribly
frightened if they are visited unwarned by strange apparitions; so I
tell you this that you may be prepared.

This was a Carmelite convent, then? I said.

Yes; it was suppressed after the unification of Italy, and given to
the House of Muxaro; but the family died out, and I bought it. There is
a story about the ghostly nun, who was only a novice, and even that
unwillingly, which gives an interest to an otherwise very commonplace
and uninteresting ghost.

I beg that you will tell it us, cried Rendel.

There is a storm coming, I added. See, the lightning is flashing
already up among the mountains at the head of the valley; if the story
is tragic, as it must be, now is just the time for it. You will tell
it, will you not?

The Cavaliere smiled that slow, cryptic smile of his that was so
unfathomable.

As you say, there is a shower coming, and as we have fierce
tempests here, we might not sleep; so perhaps we may as well sit up a
little longer, and I will tell you the story.

The air was utterly still, hot and oppressive; the rich, sick odour
of the oranges just bursting into bloom came up from the valley in a
gently rising tide. The sky, thick with stars, seemed mirrored in the
rich foliage below, so numerous were the glow-worms under the still
trees, and the fireflies that gleamed in the hot air. Lightning flashed
fitfully from the darkening west; but as yet no thunder broke the heavy
silence.

The Cavaliere lighted another cigar, and pulled a cushion under his
head so that he could look down to the distant lights of the city.
This is the story, he said.

Once upon a time, late in the last century, the Duca di Castiglione
was attached to the court of Charles III., King of the Two Sicilies,
down at Palermo. They tell me he was very ambitious, and, not content
with marrying his son to one of the ladies of the House of Tuscany, had
betrothed his only daughter, Rosalia, to Prince Antonio, a cousin of
the king. His whole life was wrapped up in the fame of his family, and
he quite forgot all domestic affection in his madness for dynastic
glory. His son was a worthy scion, cold and proud; but Rosalia was,
according to legend, utterly the reverse,a passionate, beautiful
girl, wilful and headstrong, and careless of her family and the world.

The time had nearly come for her to marry Prince Antonio, a typical
roué of the Spanish court, when, through the treachery of a
servant, the Duke discovered that his daughter was in love with a young
military officer whose name I don't remember, and that an elopement had
been planned to take place the next night. The fury and dismay of the
old autocrat passed belief; he saw in a flash the downfall of all his
hopes of family aggrandizement through union with the royal house, and,
knowing well the spirit of his daughter, despaired of ever bringing her
to subjection. Nevertheless, he attacked her unmercifully, and, by
bullying and threats, by imprisonment, and even bodily chastisement, he
tried to break her spirit and bend her to his indomitable will. Through
his power at court he had the lover sent away to the mainland, and for
more than a year he held his daughter closely imprisoned in his palace
on the Toledo,that one, you may remember, on the right, just beyond
the Via del Collegio dei Gesuiti, with the beautiful ironwork grilles
at all the windows, and the painted frieze. But nothing could move her,
nothing bend her stubborn will; and at last, furious at the girl he
could not govern, Castiglione sent her to this convent, then one of the
few houses of barefoot Carmelite nuns in Italy. He stipulated that she
should take the name of Maddelena, that he should never hear of her
again, and that she should be held an absolute prisoner in this
conventual castle.

Rosaliaor Sister Maddelena, as she was nowbelieved her lover
dead, for her father had given her good proofs of this, and she
believed him; nevertheless she refused to marry another, and seized
upon the convent life as a blessed relief from the tyranny of her
maniacal father.

She lived here for four or five years; her name was forgotten at
court and in her father's palace. Rosalia di Castiglione was dead, and
only Sister Maddelena lived, a Carmelite nun, in her place.

In 1798 Ferdinand IV. found himself driven from his throne on the
mainland, his kingdom divided, and he himself forced to flee to Sicily.
With him came the lover of the dead Rosalia, now high in military
honour. He on his part had thought Rosalia dead, and it was only by
accident that he found that she still lived, a Carmelite nun. Then
began the second act of the romance that until then had been only sadly
commonplace, but now became dark and tragic. MicheleMichele
Biscari,that was his name; I remember nowhaunted the region of the
convent, striving to communicate with Sister Maddelena; and at last,
from the cliffs over us, up there among the citronsyou will see by
the next flash of lightninghe saw her in the great cloister,
recognized her in her white habit, found her the same dark and splendid
beauty of six years before, only made more beautiful by her white habit
and her rigid life. By and by he found a day when she was alone, and
tossed a ring to her as she stood in the midst of the cloister. She
looked up, saw him, and from that moment lived only to love him in life
as she had loved his memory in the death she had thought had overtaken
him.

With the utmost craft they arranged their plans together. They
could not speak, for a word would have aroused the other inmates of the
convent. They could make signs only when Sister Maddelena was alone.
Michele could throw notes to her from the cliff,a feat demanding a
strong arm, as you will see, if you measure the distance with your
eye,and she could drop replies from the window over the cliff, which
he picked up at the bottom. Finally he succeeded in casting into the
cloister a coil of light rope. The girl fastened it to the bars of one
of the windows, andso great is the madness of loveBiscari actually
climbed the rope from the valley to the window of the cell, a distance
of almost two hundred feet, with but three little craggy resting-places
in all that height. For nearly a month these nocturnal visits were
undiscovered, and Michele had almost completed his arrangements for
carrying the girl from Sta. Catarina and away to Spain, when
unfortunately one of the sisters, suspecting some mystery, from the
changed face of Sister Maddelena, began investigating, and at length
discovered the rope neatly coiled up by the nun's window, and hidden
under some clinging vines. She instantly told the Mother Superior; and
together they watched from a window in the crypt of the chapel,the
only place, as you will see to-morrow, from which one could see the
window of Sister Maddelena's cell. They saw the figure of Michele
daringly ascending the slim rope; watched hour after hour, the Sister
remaining while the Superior went to say the hours in the chapel, at
each of which Sister Maddelena was present; and at last, at prime, just
as the sun was rising, they saw the figure slip down the rope, watched
the rope drawn up and concealed, and knew that Sister Maddelena was in
their hands for vengeance and punishment,a criminal.

The next day, by the order of the Mother Superior, Sister Maddelena
was imprisoned in one of the cells under the chapel, charged with her
guilt, and commanded to make full and complete confession. But not a
word would she say, although they offered her forgiveness if she would
tell the name of her lover. At last the Superior told her that after
this fashion would they act the coming night: she herself would be
placed in the crypt, tied in front of the window, her mouth gagged;
that the rope would be lowered, and the lover allowed to approach even
to the sill of her window, and at that moment the rope would be cut,
and before her eyes her lover would be dashed to death on the ragged
cliffs. The plan was feasible, and Sister Maddelena knew that the
Mother was perfectly capable of carrying it out. Her stubborn spirit
was broken, and in the only way possible she begged for mercy, for the
sparing of her lover. The Mother Superior was deaf at first; at last
she said, 'It is your life or his. I will spare him on condition that
you sacrifice your own life.' Sister Maddelena accepted the terms
joyfully, wrote a last farewell to Michele, fastened the note to the
rope, and with her own hands cut the rope and saw it fall coiling down
to the valley bed far below.

Then she silently prepared for death; and at midnight, while her
lover was wandering, mad with the horror of impotent fear, around the
white walls of the convent, Sister Maddelena, for love of Michele, gave
up her life. How, was never known. That she was indeed dead was only a
suspicion, for when Biscari finally compelled the civil authorities to
enter the convent, claiming that murder had been done there, they found
no sign. Sister Maddelena had been sent to the parent house of the
barefoot Carmelites at Avila in Spain, so the Superior stated, because
of her incorrigible contumacy. The old Duke of Castiglione refused to
stir hand or foot in the matter, and Michele, after fruitless attempts
to prove that the Superior of Sta. Catarina had caused the death, was
forced to leave Sicily. He sought in Spain for very long; but no sign
of the girl was to be found, and at last he died, exhausted with
suffering and sorrow.

Even the name of Sister Maddelena was forgotten, and it was not
until the convents were suppressed, and this house came into the hands
of the Muxaros, that her story was remembered. It was then that the
ghost began to appear; and, an explanation being necessary, the story,
or legend, was obtained from one of the nuns who still lived after the
suppression. I think the factfor it is a factof the ghost rather
goes to prove that Michele was right, and that poor Rosalia gave her
life a sacrifice for love,whether in accordance with the terms of the
legend or not, I cannot say. One or the other of you will probably see
her to-night. You might ask her for the facts. Well, that is all the
story of Sister Maddelena, known in the world as Rosalia di
Castiglione. Do you like it?

It is admirable, said Rendel, enthusiastically. But I fancy I
should rather look on it simply as a story, and not as a warning of
what is going to happen. I don't much fancy real ghosts myself.

But the poor Sister is quite harmless; and Valguanera rose,
stretching himself. My servants say she wants a mass said over her, or
something of that kind; but I haven't much love for such priestly
hocus-pocus,I beg your pardon (turning to me), I had forgotten that
you were a Catholic: forgive my rudeness.

My dear Cavaliere, I beg you not to apologize. I am sorry you
cannot see things as I do; but don't for a moment think I am
hypersensitive.

I have an excuse,perhaps you will say only an explanation; but I
live where I see all the absurdities and corruptions of the Church.

Perhaps you let the accidents blind you to the essentials; but do
not let us quarrel to-night,see, the storm is close on us. Shall we
go in?

The stars were blotted out through nearly all the sky; low,
thunderous clouds, massed at the head of the valley, were sweeping over
so close that they seemed to brush the black pines on the mountain
above us. To the south and east the storm-clouds had shut down almost
to the sea, leaving a space of black sky where the moon in its last
quarter was rising just to the left of Monte Pellegrino,a black
silhouette against the pallid moonlight. The rosy lightning flashed
almost incessantly, and through the fitful darkness came the sound of
bells across the valley, the rushing torrent below, and the dull roar
of the approaching rain, with a deep organ-point of solemn thunder
through it all.

We fled indoors from the coming tempest, and taking our candles,
said good-night, and sought each his respective room.

My own was in the southern part of the old convent, giving on the
terrace we had just quitted, and about over the main doorway. The
rushing storm, as it swept down the valley with the swelling torrent
beneath, was very fascinating, and after wrapping myself in a
dressing-gown I stood for some time by the deeply embrasured window,
watching the blazing lightning and the beating rain whirled by fitful
gusts of wind around the spurs of the mountains. Gradually the violence
of the shower seemed to decrease, and I threw myself down on my bed in
the hot air, wondering if I really was to experience the ghostly visit
the Cavaliere so confidently predicted.

I had thought out the whole matter to my own satisfaction, and
fancied I knew exactly what I should do, in case Sister Maddelena came
to visit me. The story touched me: the thought of the poor faithful
girl who sacrificed herself for her lover,himself very likely, quite
unworthy,and who now could never sleep for reason of her unquiet
soul, sent out into the storm of eternity without spiritual aid or
counsel. I could not sleep; for the still vivid lightning, the crowding
thoughts of the dead nun, and the shivering anticipation of my possible
visitation, made slumber quite out of the question. No suspicion of
sleepiness had visited me, when, perhaps an hour after midnight, came a
sudden vivid flash of lightning, and, as my dazzled eyes began to
regain the power of sight, I saw her as plainly as in life,a tall
figure, shrouded in the white habit of the Carmelites, her head bent,
her hands clasped before her. In another flash of lightning she slowly
raised her head and looked at me long and earnestly. She was very
beautiful, like the Virgin of Beltraffio in the National Gallery,more
beautiful than I had supposed possible, her deep, passionate eyes very
tender and pitiful in their pleading, beseeching glance. I hardly think
I was frightened, or even startled, but lay looking steadily at her as
she stood in the beating lightning.

Then she breathed, rather than articulated, with a voice that almost
brought tears, so infinitely sad and sorrowful was it, I cannot
sleep! and the liquid eyes grew more pitiful and questioning as bright
tears fell from them down the pale dark face.

The figure began to move slowly toward the door, its eyes fixed on
mine with a look that was weary and almost agonized. I leaped from the
bed and stood waiting. A look of utter gratitude swept over the face,
and, turning, the figure passed through the doorway.

Out into the shadow of the corridor it moved, like a drift of pallid
storm-cloud, and I followed, all natural and instinctive fear or
nervousness quite blotted out by the part I felt I was to play in
giving rest to a tortured soul. The corridors were velvet black; but
the pale figure floated before me always, an unerring guide, now but a
thin mist on the utter night, now white and clear in the bluish
lightning through some window or doorway.

Down the stairway into the lower hall, across the refectory, where
the great frescoed Crucifixion flared into sudden clearness under the
fitful lightning, out into the silent cloister.

It was very dark. I stumbled along the heaving bricks, now guiding
myself by a hand on the whitewashed wall, now by a touch on a column
wet with the storm. From all the eaves the rain was dripping on to the
pebbles at the foot of the arcade: a pigeon, startled from the capital
where it was sleeping, beat its way into the cloister close. Still the
white thing drifted before me to the farther side of the court, then
along the cloister at right angles, and paused before one of the many
doorways that led to the cells.

A sudden blaze of fierce lightning, the last now of the fleeting
trail of storm, leaped around us, and in the vivid light I saw the
white face turned again with the look of overwhelming desire, of
beseeching pathos, that had choked my throat with an involuntary sob
when first I saw Sister Maddelena. In the brief interval that ensued
after the flash, and before the roaring thunder burst like the crash of
battle over the trembling convent, I heard again the sorrowful words,
I cannot sleep, come from the impenetrable darkness. And when the
lightning came again, the white figure was gone.

I wandered around the courtyard, searching in vain for Sister
Maddelena, even until the moonlight broke through the torn and sweeping
fringes of the storm. I tried the door where the white figure vanished:
it was locked; but I had found what I sought, and, carefully noting its
location, went back to my room, but not to sleep.

In the morning the Cavaliere asked Rendel and me which of us had
seen the ghost, and I told him my story; then I asked him to grant me
permission to sift the thing to the bottom; and he courteously gave the
whole matter into my charge, promising that he would consent to
anything.

I could hardly wait to finish breakfast; but no sooner was this done
than, forgetting my morning pipe, I started with Rendel and the
Cavaliere to investigate.

I am sure there is nothing in that cell, said Valguanera, when we
came in front of the door I had marked. It is curious that you should
have chosen the door of the very cell that tradition assigns to Sister
Maddelena; but I have often examined that room myself, and I am sure
that there is no chance for anything to be concealed. In fact, I had
the floor taken up once, soon after I came here, knowing the room was
that of the mysterious Sister, and thinking that there, if anywhere,
the monastic crime would have taken place; still, we will go in, if you
like.

He unlocked the door, and we entered, one of us, at all events, with
a beating heart. The cell was very small, hardly eight feet square.
There certainly seemed no opportunity for concealing a body in the tiny
place; and although I sounded the floor and walls, all gave a solid,
heavy answer,the unmistakable sound of masonry.

For the innocence of the floor the Cavaliere answered. He had, he
said, had it all removed, even to the curving surfaces of the vault
below; yet somewhere in this room the body of the murdered girl was
concealed,of this I was certain. But where? There seemed no answer;
and I was compelled to give up the search for the moment, somewhat to
the amusement of Valguanera, who had watched curiously to see if I
could solve the mystery.

But I could not forget the subject, and toward noon started on
another tour of investigation. I procured the keys from the Cavaliere,
and examined the cells adjoining; they were apparently the same, each
with its window opposite the door, and nothingStay, were they the
same? I hastened into the suspected cell; it was as I thought: this
cell, being on the corner, could have had two windows, yet only one was
visible, and that to the left, at right angles with the doorway. Was it
imagination? As I sounded the wall opposite the door, where the other
window should be; I fancied that the sound was a trifle less solid and
dull. I was becoming excited. I dashed back to the cell on the right,
and, forcing open the little window, thrust my head out.

It was found at last! In the smooth surface of the yellow wall was a
rough space, following approximately the shape of the other cell
windows, not plastered like the rest of the wall, but showing the
shapes of bricks through its thick coatings of whitewash. I turned with
a gasp of excitement and satisfaction: yes, the embrasure of the wall
was deep enough; what a wall it was!four feet at least, and the
opening of the window reached to the floor, though the window itself
was hardly three feet square. I felt absolutely certain that the secret
was solved, and called the Cavaliere and Rendel, too excited to give
them an explanation of my theories.

They must have thought me mad when I suddenly began scraping away at
the solid wall in front of the door; but in a few minutes they
understood what I was about, for under the coatings of paint and
plaster appeared the original bricks; and as my architectural knowledge
had led me rightly, the space I had cleared was directly over a
vertical joint between firm, workmanlike masonry on one hand, and rough
amateurish work on the other, bricks laid anyway, and without order or
science.

Rendel seized a pick, and was about to assail the rude wall, when I
stopped him.

Let us be careful, I said; who knows what we may find? So we set
to work digging out the mortar around a brick at about the level of our
eyes.

How hard the mortar had become! But a brick yielded at last, and
with trembling fingers I detached it. Darkness within, yet beyond
question there was a cavity there, not a solid wall; and with infinite
care we removed another brick. Still the hole was too small to admit
enough light from the dimly illuminated cell. With a chisel we pried at
the sides of a large block of masonry, perhaps eight bricks in size. It
moved, and we softly slid it from its bed.

Valguanera, who was standing watching us as we lowered the bricks to
the floor, gave a sudden cry, a cry like that of a frightened
woman,terrible, coming from him. Yet there was cause.

Framed by the ragged opening of the bricks, hardly seen in the dim
light, was a face, an ivory image, more beautiful than any antique
bust, but drawn and distorted by unspeakable agony: the lovely mouth
half open, as though gasping for breath; the eyes cast upward; and
below, slim chiselled hands crossed on the breast, but clutching the
folds of the white Carmelite habit, torture and agony visible in every
tense muscle, fighting against the determination of the rigid pose.

We stood there breathless, staring at the pitiful sight, fascinated,
bewitched. So this was the secret. With fiendish ingenuity, the rigid
ecclesiastics had blocked up the window, then forced the beautiful
creature to stand in the alcove, while with remorseless hands and iron
hearts they had shut her into a living tomb. I had read of such things
in romance; but to find the verity here, before my eyes

Steps came down the cloister, and with a simultaneous thought we
sprang to the door and closed it behind us. The room was sacred; that
awful sight was not for curious eyes. The gardener was coming to ask
some trivial question of Valguanera. The Cavaliere cut him short.
Pietro, go down to Parco and ask Padre Stefano to come here at once.
(I thanked him with a glance.) Stay! He turned to me: Signore, it is
already two o'clock and too late for mass, is it not?

I nodded.

Valguanera thought a moment, then he said, Bring two horses; the
Signor Americano will go with you,do you understand? Then, turning
to me, You will go, will you not? I think you can explain matters to
Padre Stefano better than I.

Of course I will go, more than gladly. So it happened that after a
hasty luncheon I wound down the mountain to Parco, found Padre Stefano,
explained my errand to him, found him intensely eager and sympathetic,
and by five o'clock had him back at the convent with all that was
necessary for the resting of the soul of the dead girl.

In the warm twilight, with the last light of the sunset pouring into
the little cell through the window where almost a century ago Rosalia
had for the last time said farewell to her lover, we gathered together
to speed her tortured soul on its journey, so long delayed. Nothing was
omitted; all the needful offices of the Church were said by Padre
Stefano, while the light in the window died away, and the flickering
flames of the candles carried by two of the acolytes from San Francesco
threw fitful flashes of pallid light into the dark recess where the
white face had prayed to Heaven for a hundred years.

Finally, the Padre took the asperge from the hands of one of the
acolytes, and with a sign of the cross in benediction while he chanted
the Asperges, gently sprinkled the holy water on the upturned
face. Instantly the whole vision crumbled to dust, the face was gone,
and where once the candlelight had flickered on the perfect semblance
of the girl dead so very long, it now fell only on the rough bricks
which closed the window, bricks laid with frozen hearts by pitiless
hands.

But our task was not done yet. It had been arranged that Padre
Stefano should remain at the convent all night, and that as soon as
midnight made it possible he should say the first mass for the repose
of the girl's soul. We sat on the terrace talking over the strange
events of the last crowded hours, and I noted with satisfaction that
the Cavaliere no longer spoke of the Church with that hardness, which
had hurt me so often. It is true that the Padre was with us nearly all
the time; but not only was Valguanera courteous, he was almost
sympathetic; and I wondered if it might not prove that more than one
soul benefited by the untoward events of the day.

With the aid of the astonished and delighted servants, and no little
help as well from Signora Valguanera, I fitted up the long cold Altar
in the chapel, and by midnight we had the gloomy sanctuary beautiful
with flowers and candles. It was a curiously solemn service, in the
first hour of the new day, in the midst of blazing candles and the
thick incense, the odour of the opening orange-blooms drifting up in
the fresh morning air, and mingling with the incense smoke and the
perfume of flowers within. Many prayers were said that night for the
soul of the dead girl, and I think many afterward; for after the
benediction I remained for a little time in my place, and when I rose
from my knees and went toward the chapel door, I saw a figure kneeling
still, and, with a start, recognized the form of the Cavaliere. I
smiled with quiet satisfaction and gratitude, and went away softly,
content with the chain of events that now seemed finished.

The next day the alcove was again walled up, for the precious dust
could not be gathered together for transportation to consecrated
ground; so I went down to the little cemetery at Parco for a basket of
earth, which we cast in over the ashes of Sister Maddelena.

By and by, when Rendel and I went away, with great regret,
Valguanera came down to Palermo with us; and the last act that we
performed in Sicily was assisting him to order a tablet of marble,
whereon was carved this simple inscription:

HERE LIES THE BODY OF
ROSALIA DI CASTIGLIONI,
CALLED
SISTER MADDELENA.
HER SOUL
IS WITH HIM WHO GAVE IT.